Sounding Off: The bigger promise offered by a vaccine

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered by PhocusWire that week.

Announcements in recent weeks about the development of at least two vaccines to protect people from the coronavirus have lightened the dark mood that has encompassed the travel, tourism and hospitality industry since the beginning of 2020.

The discussions around recovery timeframes finally have an air of reality to them, rather than what felt before more akin to simply sticking a pin in a chart and making a bunch of assumptions.

It's obviously not as simple as jabbing almost eight billion people with a vaccine and they all start traveling again, for both leisure and business.

Much has changed this year, not least with how we now interact almost exclusively in our business relationships over the web - a change that could be permanent.

But Jason Calacanis is right: if the world can come together to (start to) fix arguably the biggest societal and business crisis of the last three quarters of a century, then it should set even bigger goals.

That bigger goal is clearly climate change, as he suggests.

For all the talk by countless leaders in the travel industry this year about reflection, few are looking beyond their own operations and kickstarting their ability to get everyone moving again. 

In an ideal world, this is also a time to truly understand and act on the predicament that the world is in when it comes to the impact that people and industry have on nature and our ability to continue as a species in a way that works for everyone and everything.

The travel industry has a vital role to play in this regard - but it often doesn't feel to many that the sector has either the ability or drive to aim for the same goals as Calacanis.